Daily Yellowstone journal., 1887-06-23
DEATH ON THE GARROTE.
4 DREADFUL PICTURE or CAPITAL
PUNISHMENT Nv SPAIN.

~
Land of the Oiivs-Ths r~repidatiou
With which . Criminal Met His
Doom.
Suddenly the crowd halts and a great
Silence falls. A close carriage, with
Minds down, escorted by q picket of civil
guards, slowly passes through the press.
We can follow IL without hurrying our
selves.
In a little while the place of execution
appears before me, thronged with a null
tftude swaying like a tide, and mp from
the sea Of heads energies the white mast
Of the scaffold.
approach.
Lying upon a stool, covered with a snow
white cloth, is the garrote itself-shim-
mering like q crown Of steel. In a little
while the executioner win attach It to
post against which the criminal is to be
fastened. The final preparations con-
sumed considerable time, so that I was
well able to make a leisurely examination
Of the sinister locality whittier curiosity
had drawn me for the purpose Of studying
the p~hysiognomy of the great pushing or
squeezing crowd. As always, and in all
places, the women were the most numer-
ous.
Now there Is n great movement around
the scaffold. Tie soldiers close their
ranks and three men approach the scat
fold. One Of them ascends IL. II IL the
executioner. He is thin, low sized and
looks about 40 years old. While waiting
for his victim he keeps walking ~nervously
TO and fro with his hands behind his back
and his head down. From time to time
he stops and looks at the argolla the
'.garrote'D with u suspicious expression
Of countenance. Perhaps he is afraid Of
the power of resistance possessed by the
cervical vertebra Of Alvarez, and is there
fore afraid Of losing his bounty.
THE DISMAL scAFFoLD.
Noisy as Il was a little while ago, the
crowd now suddenly becomes silent
Some women are turning pale; and one
can feel that a nervous excitement weighs
upon the crowd. A low rumbling is
heard. II is the black carriage that bears
the condemned man. II stops at the foot
of the scaffold; ard the criminal is soon
painfully climbing the twelve high steps
Of the dismal scaffold, leaning on the arm
OF a priest. Anfther priest precedes him,
lifting very high an immense crucifix,
toward which the condemned man strives
10 turn his terror stricken face. Alvarez
Olivia is not yet 25 years old; and it was
believed that the savage energy he had
displayed in committing his crime, to-
gether with his vigorous youth, would
give him strength TO face death. But
nothing Of the kind Is now shown by him;
and really il was too much 10 expect Of a
man who knew his fate forty-eight hours
ago, and who, while listening to the fu-
neral chants in the prison chapel, must
have beheld all kinds Of hideous visions
passing before him.
This rule of obliging the condemned to
listen during the two nights preceding his
execution TO an interminable series Of
prayers, requiems, DE Profundis chants,
uttered for the repose Of his soul by his
fellow criminals, seems TO me something
atrocious; and l can see In IL the last
vestige of the ferocious medieval mysti-
cism Of Spain, with all its unconscious
cruelty. As l stood on an elevation over
looking the scaffold, ! was able to observe
all the details of the last scene Of the
tragedy. The condemned man mechan-
icaAy yielded himself up ito the executioner.
The latter sat down at the foot Of the
post, with his back to IL and then tied his
hands and feet hard and fast. He did all
this without hurrying himself in the least,
and with all the dignified indifference
which characterizes the Spanish function
AIRY in the discharge Of his duty. II the
preparations had lasted even a few seconds
longer I believe I should have lost my
own self control. I could hear my heart
humping in my breast. and every mo
ment or two something like a veil came
before my eyes.
THE IRo COLLAR.
You could not even hear q whisper in
the crowd. While one Of the priests
pressed n crucifx to the colorless lips of
the sufferer, another was murmuring
words OF consolation and hope into his
ear. But the wretched man wal not
listening. His expressionless face hal q
waxen pallor, and his eyes,, as they wan
dered over the ocean Of faces before him,
already seemed dim with the dullness of
death.
He started considerably when the exc
cutioner placed the iron collar about his
neck. and ! observed his mouth contract.
Then, however, a white covering thrown
over his features hid them from further
observation. The executioner then gave
two or three turns Of the screws connect
ed with the instrument Of death. The
bones of the neck cracked, a long trem-
bling ran through the whole body, the
arms twisted outward, the legs inward.
Alvarez Olivia was dead.
The priests took of their square caps, a